To end a great Saturday of boxing we saw Takashi Miura (31-4-2, 24) [三浦 隆司] face off with WBC Super Featherweight champion Miguel Berchelt (32-1, 28), in a mandatory title challenge. Sadly for Miura his age, and stylistic deficiencies, saw him come up short in a bout that promised a lot but fell way short of expectations.

From the opening moments it was clear that Berchelt respect Miura's much vaunted left hand, and instead of standing his ground and engaging he made the most of his natural advantages, notable his speed and movement, to control the range and land on Miura from range. Not only was Berchelt landing be he did so with eye catching shots, including a right-left combination which dropped Miura in the opening round.

From round 1 to round 6 the bout had a very defined pattern, with Miura chasing shadows, hitting air and being tagged by Berchelts shots on a regular basis. Every so often Miura would connect, but his success rate was low, and came in the form of single shots, with no follow ups, allowing Berchelt to get away without any issues at all.

In round 7 Miura began to have success, landing some solid straight lefts that left Berchelt bleeding from the mouth and begin to show signs of doubt. That doubt was slowly becoming clear, but he continued to fight to his game plan, moving and boxing, using his speed and movement to avoid a tear up. In round 8 Miura managed to really have success, with some big body shots, and despite his right eye swelling it seemed like he was starting to get to a tiring Berchelt. The Mexican was still landing the better combinations but the Japanese fighter seemed to be landing the heavier single blows, and the fight seemed to be turning in his favour, even if it was only slightly.

As we moved in to the the final few rounds Miura seemed to get progressively more successful, though Berchelt was never looking second best. In fact whilst Berchelt looked the better fighter, it was clear the fight was much harder than he was expecting, and much more draining than he'd trained for. That showed again when he had to fight incredibly hard in the final round, with Miura clearly looking to land a home run shot, knowing he needed a KO. Miura could never find the shot, but that was only because Berchelt stayed alert, and did all he could to avoid having a final round fire fight.

At the end of the bout it was clear Berchelt had won, though the score cards were rather spread, with one judge scoring it 120-109, another having it 119-108 and the the third having it a more competitive looking 116-111. We were close to the final card, though admit there may have been some bias. The fight was certainly no shut out, but the card of 120-109 suggests several even rounds, given the knockdown in round 1.

The future for Berchelt will likely feature big international fights. From Miura however the future likely consists of retirement, as he's not the high intensity, combination punching warrior he once was. He's still got a warrior mindset, but not longer the energy or intensity to make the most of it, sadly